You Hire Me to Look Around the Corner
Sure, you hire me to create one of a kind custom furniture pieces to enhance your life. But what you’re really getting is someone to look around the corner for you. To anticipate how things will work. To ask the right questions.
Sometimes it might be uncomfortable. Having a relative stranger question your ideas isn’t easy. But the goal is the happy marriage of both form and function. If it looks great but you hate using it then what have we accomplished?
Custom Furniture, here is how it really is | Choose an artisan that thinks, feels and sees around the corners
On a previous home library build the clients wanted fixed shelving across all four bookcases so that the entire wall would look orderly and symmetric. I appreciate and even strive for that kind of a feeling. I really like a sense of harmony and clean lines.
But this was to be a functional bookcase, to hold all types and sizes of books, photos and memorabilia. During the design phase we discussed the box that fixed shelves would put them in. They would be locked into a design, regardless of what they needed, or what their priorities would become. What if they decided that having tall books standing upright was more important than the same shelf height? Too bad.
They also admitted to not wanting to see shelf pin holes for adjustable shelves, feeling that they would detract from the overall beauty of the room.
As a designer I advocated that building in adjustability would outweigh potential down sides. Having adjustable shelves meant they had the option to have different shelf heights between cases, but they did not have to use them. Symmetry could still be maintained. Order in the room was still possible. They just had an option, should the need arise.
Make Sure Your Custom Furniture Works For You
As far as shelf pin holes, we discussed that most holes would be covered by the books (this library actually hold books!) and not be visible. In the end, they truly appreciated the challenge to their status quo.
When you choose to invest in custom furniture you should have a collaborative partner willing to look past the excitement and bells and whistles to make sure that what you design and build achieves that happy marriage. It must look special, and it must function properly. Is your shop advocating for your use of your furniture? Details matter. And the right questions matter. It’s not about being right. It’s about achieving the best outcome.